Audiobooks narrated by Carra Patterson

Award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley delivers a poignant, page-turning novel about the powerand fragilityof family, personal identity, and the choices we are called on to make . . . Raised by a widowed mother, Jill Reed has come a long way from her difficult youth. But while she may not have had money, Jill never doubted she was rich in love. Her mother, Connie, made Jill the center of her world. Now, even though she has a young family of her own, its Jills turn to care for her ailing mother. When early dementia begins to set in, Connie starts talking about Jills other life. Jill assumes its just rambling confusion. Still, Connies stories about Jills childhood, and her fathers early death, never quite added up. And when a strange man shows up to Jills job bearing news that turns Jills life upside down, theres no denying Connies devastating secret. As Jill sets out to learn more about her past, shes stunned by what she learns and what it will mean for her future. Now, she must decide what price shes willing to pay to claim the life thats rightfully hers.

Reshonda Tate Billingsley (Author), Carra Patterson (Narrator)

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Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

A sweet bedtime story from the award-winning author Nikki Grimes about a mother, her little boy, and their imagination-fueled and animal filled journey to get to sleep. It's bedtime. But Mommy's little one is not sleepy. He growls like a bear, he questions like an owl, he tosses his mane like a lion. He hunts for water like a sly wolf, and hides like a snake. Mommy needs to wrangle her sweet creature for sleep in this endearing and imagination-fueled journey to bedtime, from Children's Literature Legacy Awardwinning author Nikki Grimes and acclaimed illustrator Elizabeth Zunon.

Nikki Grimes (Author), Carra Patterson (Narrator)

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He Said, She Said

Sparks will fly in this hip-hop-hot teen novel that mixes social protest and star-crossed romance, from Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author Kwame Alexander! He Said, She Said is perfect for fans of Walter Dean Myers and Rachel Vail alike. This paperback edition includes a Q&A with author Kwame Alexander. He says: Omar 'T-Diddy' Smalls has got it made-a full football ride to UMiami, hero-worship status at school, and pick of any girl at West Charleston High. She says: Football, shmootball. Here's what Claudia Clarke cares about: Harvard, the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the staggering teen pregnancy rate, investigative journalism . . . the list goes on. She does not have a minute to waste on Mr. T-Diddy Smalls and his harem of bimbos. He Said, She Said is a fun and fresh novel from Kwame Alexander that throws these two high school seniors together when they unexpectedly end up leading the biggest social protest this side of the Mississippi-with a lot of help from Facebook and Twitter. The stakes are high, the romance is hot, and when these worlds collide, watch out!

Kwame Alexander (Author), Carra Patterson, Ruffin Prentiss (Narrator)

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It All Comes Down to This

It's 1965, Los Angeles. All twelve-year-old Sophie wants to do is write her book, star in the community play, and hang out with her friend Jennifer. But she's the new black kid in a nearly all-white neighborhood; her beloved sister, Lily, is going away to college soon; and her parents' marriage is rocky. There's also her family's new, disapproving housekeeper to deal with. When riots erupt in nearby Watts and a friend is unfairly arrested, Sophie learns that life-and her own place in it-is even more complicated than she'd once thought. Leavened with gentle humor, this story is perfect for fans of Rita Williams-Garcia.

Karen English (Author), Carra Patterson (Narrator)

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Friday Black

A piercingly raw debut story collection from a young writer with an explosive voice; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it's like to be young and black in America. From the start of this extraordinary debut, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In 'The Finkelstein Five,' Adjei-Brenyah gives us an unforgettable reckoning of the brutal prejudice of our justice system. In 'Zimmer Land,' we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And 'Friday Black' and 'How to Sell a Jacket as Told by Ice King' show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all. Entirely fresh in its style and perspective, and sure to appeal to fans of Colson Whitehead, Marlon James, and George Saunders, Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent, wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope.

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Author), Carra Patterson, Corey Allen (Narrator)

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Chasing the North Star

On a moonless night in the spring of 1851, a young slave makes a bid for freedom with only the North Star to guide him. Bestselling novelist and historian Robert Morgan returns with a stunning new work of historical fiction. In Chasing the North Star, Morgan brings to full and vivid life the story of a runaway slave named Jonah Williams who, on his eighteenth birthday, flees the South Carolina plantation on which he was born with only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the clothes on his back. No shoes, no map, no clear idea of where to head, except north, hiding during the day and running through the night. Although Jonah eludes the men sent to capture him, the one person who never loses his trail is Angel, a slave girl he meets in North Carolina, a young woman with a remarkably free spirit who sees Jonah as her way to freedom and sets out to follow him. Morgan's clear, plain prose brings an urgency and authenticity to this spellbinding story of two teenage runaways and their terrifying world. Filled with adventure and romance, Chasing the North Star is storytelling of the highest caliber.

Robert Morgan (Author), Carra Patterson, Kevin R. Free (Narrator)

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Boy, Snow, Bird

From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox , the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity. In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty-- the opposite of the life she' s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she' d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy' s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving , Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.

Helen Oyeyemi (Author), Carra Patterson, Susan Bennett (Narrator)

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Pretty Boy Problems

Publishers Weekly called award-winning author Michele Grant's Heard It All Before a ''scorching debut.'' This sequel follows Roman Montgomery's charming brother Beau, who shows up at his sister's Dallas condo looking for a place to stay. Instead, he finds her new roommate, Belle -- equal parts attitude and beauty -- who wants nothing to do with Beau's pretty-boy act. But when she offers him a job, Beau sees a chance to make something of himself -- and prove he's more than just a pretty face.

Michele Grant (Author), Carra Patterson, Darren Zeigler, Darren Ziegler, Lisa Smith, Simi Howe (Narrator)

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The Family Business

New York Times best-selling author Carl Weber and award-winning novelist Eric Pete team up to deliver the first in a much-anticipated new trilogy. The Family Business features two times the heat, two times the fun, and two times the drama as the members of an unforgettable family (not to mention lovers and hangers-on) find their way in and out of trouble. As their many fans will attest, Weber and Pete share a talent for penning juicy fiction that their audience can't get enough of.

Carl Weber, Eric Pete (Author), Adam Alexander, Carra Patterson, Corey Allen, Ezra Knight, Michael Early, Patricia R. Floyd (Narrator)

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The Choir Director

Carl Weber is a New York Times best-selling author who's made a name for himself with wildly entertaining works marked by his trademark wit and storytelling panache. In The Choir Director, Bishop T.K. Wilson is banking on dynamic new choir director Anthony Mackie to reverse the failing congregation's fortunes. But while Anthony's got more than enough chops to raise a heavenly chorus, he's also got a weakness for the ladies that could make the Devil himself stand up and take notice.

Carl Weber (Author), Adam Alexander, Carra Patterson, Jennifer Kidwell, Lisa Smith, Marc Damon Johnson, Mark Damon Johnson, Patricia R. Floyd (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Carra Patterson